Alive
by Curimuch
Summary: The honorable servant of light was still alive; Dark Pit standing over Palutena was proof of this. He will soon find out that filling in the shoes of Pit would be the hardest half hour of his life. Moult's big sister one-shot.


**A/N: I have no idea where the bloody hell I was going with this. _But it's __done. _It may be very boring but IT IS DONE! ): Originally this was meant to be apart of Moult, but it's _too long_ to be apart of Moult now. Like Moult, it's _relatively_ canon in material, but with slight alterations because following the game word for word makes things boring for the writer and reader alike. I had a blast with the fighting, though.**

"Look, he isn't dead because I'm still here. Get up and something'll be done."

Palutena may have cradled the broken angel in her arms, but it didn't alter the level of respect he had for her one bit.

"Right..." He was aware of the power that he had to do something, but not the damaging extent it traveled. His words had bite to them, even if they were simple and factual. He is the alter-ego of Pit, and right now to Palutena, it felt like the one right here was telling her things he could not. The angel she took direction from was Pit's true feelings he kept well hidden as far as she was concerned.

"We're gonna settle this at _my _place. Your abode is a total wreck, Palutena."

"...Right."

"Seesh, don't be so gloomy. We got Pittoo here!" Luckily for them, he wasn't in the mood to protest against that 'nickname'. Even with her shrill voice adding to the scratch of that name he managed to keep cool. Before the warp, he picked up Pit's nearly forgotten weapon: the Palutena blade. In Viridi's highly pink and viney domain, he kept hold of that very blade. "He left some stuff here too if that blade is too worn out for your tastes or whatever."

"It's not worn out, it has _experience._"

"I'm pretty sure the newer a _weapon _is, the stronger it is."

"The more usage it survived, the more _reliable_ it is. Anyway, what are we gonna do? Don't you gods keep secret paths up your sleeves? With all the manipulation of physics, you _have _to have-"

"I do have an idea," Palutena firmly stated. She paused the petting through Pit's ragged hair. "I've already gotten some strength back, I can direct-"

"I can direct myself. Don't make things worse by using up energy the moment you get it."

"...The underworld, you need to go back there."

"Alright then, I'm outta here." No one knew it, at least not yet, but his legs was where most of his power was concentrated. Pit's eagle dive through the mirror lead to him having quite the kick, as well any form of leg work like sprinting and jumping. He could plow through anything, even use it as an aura boosted attack-

But Viridi had flung godly rose petals into his face to slow his grand escape down.

"I don't care if you can fly on your own with a dead goddess in your wings. The more time we trim the better." No room for protest; once she was done with her statement, she beamed him as close to the underworld as she could take him. She was rather unfamiliar with the area, but any _respectful_ god knew the general placement of it. Dark Pit couldn't complain about this, but he wouldn't be openly thankful to her either. He had reasons, petals and leafs flowing from his teleportation was _so _dumb and unnecessary.

But being able to fly on his own felt better than it ever did before. It made the start of this repayment of his debt all the more meaningful. With Pit's sacrifice of setting his wings on fire, he owed him just about everything he had to make this right. Flying through the wastelands and firing this gun at enemies was second nature to him. He didn't need to focus to do it, it was simply just that easy and reflexive. This proved to be useful at the moment, because his mind wasn't all that there. Enough time had passed for him to feel the lagged shock from Pit's actions. His rival jumped off without thought or a hint of hesitation in sight, and the painful but determined cry to get to him-he just couldn't ignore it for long.

He thought the hero detested him as much as the goddess of Light had with the way those two shared an incredible hivemind. He thought by his attitude after the Lunarsanctum meant any shred of frienemy fighting was over. That his action of breaking open the chaos vortex and Pit questioning what he was doing there confirmed it, and that he only worked with him to save Palutena like he himself only worked to save his _own_ life...

He's gave Pit a difficult time _because _fighting him felt so worthwhile. Thought crunching didn't hinder him or distract from the hordes of underworld soldiers. The gods talking with one another so casually what started to falter his skillful steering.

"Weren't you two just at _war_ with one another?" He scoffed.

"Mind your own business-" And so the channels in his mind went shut.

The path _felt _repetitive and long, and somewhere along the way it filled him with anxiety. There wasn't anything to shoot, the path was clear for a road of tall dead trees, and with his mental channels closed, it was silent besides the wind in his ears that was no longer a comfortable thing. He nearly wanted to ask 'Am I even anywhere _near_ the underworld?' but he kept hold of his tongue and kept flying forward. He knew he flew fast, and that he wasn't quite clocked... he'll get there.

He squinted when a sudden brightness overcame his eyes. Taking an adjusting peek, he could see he was at some sort of landmark. The pillars glowed brightly with power, and what parts did not had runes across them.

"What kind of place is this?"

"It's unlike any earthly city. The spirits of dead gather here." He rolled his eyes from the obvious statement. Given that Palutena just recovered from something horrific, he gave her a pass from sass.

"It's _the underworld._" _Some_ sass.

"You got it!" He felt his heart skip at that voice. It was slightly given away in his posture before he used a boost of Pandora's aura to propel himself forward.

"Tch, it's you."

"Our hero's looking a little goth today. I hope the stresses of life haven't gotten you down. Hm~ That would be ever so tragic." A voice he couldn't tune out.

"No one's listening."

"It's hilarious how you have no sense of humor! That sourpuss attitude of yours will give you an ulcer, y'know." Monsters returned, and it was the remedy he needed. Viridi's voice echoed but he didn't really listen to the words; gods just didn't have anything of worth to say. But with doing nothing but sitting back and watching? He'd probably chatter himself.

"The weak are consumed, just like nature intended." _Your forces against humans must be pretty weak._

… Another boost forward, and one of his last for awhile. The area was closing down, paths turned into nothing but small openings blocked by underworld soldiers. Going through dull crystals was where it was coldest, and the further he went through the underworld the colder it gotten naturally. His chest began to tighten, and when the monsters lessened in number, the feeling only stuck with him.

"Remember when I said souls sometimes get eaten?" No.

"Well here's the hideous devourer of souls himself!"

His heart no longer felt tight, it got a kick start at pumping again. Adrenaline pushed through out him when he actually got a look at it.

"You weren't kidding about the hideous part!" It had large twitching warts throughout its body. Pit's gun was fully charged, and following the weapon's characteristics, he shot at the furthest one away and popped it in one blow. Little bulbs of lights scattered away into the dark sky. "Souls-"

Hades voice echoed throughout the zone, "I find him quite adorable, actually." Dark Pit shot at, and popped two other warts. He took advantage of his speed to create distance between the giant worm and himself to give the beams more power. "And souls _can_ be delicious!" Another wart popped open. "Luckily, they don't possess personalities or anything like that."

"What—they don't?" That made his _stomach_ squeeze. His hand luckily constricted on the gun handle rather than let it go. He stared at the last wart where souls were trapped, where they were presumably trying to break out and go about their cycle-

"Of course not! Souls have no more personality than blood or bone. They're just another resource to harvest from living beings." The wart was shaking, and instead of the worm continuing its chase for him, it decided to turn away. He chased after it and shot the final and biggest wart, and watched the entire body explode and crash into the rich sand below.

He remained stationary in the air as Viridi echoed in his mind, "Your disregard for life is just astounding. Could you be anymore callous?" _Reset bombs._

"I could _try_." He needed to get out of here- "You know souls are a bit like taffy!" Boost forward. "Sweet enough to eat, but pliable enough to mold into any shape that I imagine!" With the soul monster gone, the underworld troops returned. He cut a Syren in half and blasted a pair of Keron. "I'd love to get my hands on Pittoey's soul. So dark, so chewy, so malleable! A powerful spirit like that shouldn't be wasted on ol' chomper's lunch!" It took concentration to not spit a remark at Hades. To not ask him 'Which is it?' when it came to souls. He believed he had a personality of his own, an existence of his own, and that _his_ soul was what made him an entirely different entity to Pit. Not just his mind, but his _soul_. The differences could be felt, and he just stated it, even if 'dark' is what gave him the major difference. Pit's memories were only an enhancement to his power; memories were a vital nutrient.

His resolve grew stronger, but the area grew darker, yet warmer? More crystal-like structures were about and glowing softly... But the further he went, the more intense the glow gotten... He didn't hear much of Viridi and Palutena's conversation while he cleared out more troops, but with keywords he managed to put it together. Souls equating to underworld troops? Don't they know how many fell?

"Hold on a second, your math's off. You might want to break out the brain age, pal."

Viridi, smug as always, chimed in, "I have an brain age of twenty-four"

For the goddess of wisdom, Palutena was always quite literal. She asked, "And that's relevant because...?"

Dark Pit sighed heavily and answered, "Think about all of the casualties there have been in this war between the gods. If Hades was right, the underworld would be way more crowded with monsters."

"Then that means one fallen soldier does not equal one new underworld monster... After all, creating something as corporeal as an underworld monster would take..."

"A ton of souls!" He sighed again at Viridi's exclamation. They didn't even notice the amount of deaths going on these past three years. Biggest irony of it all for him was Viridi's shocked wail. The reset bomb most certainly gave Hades quite the stock, and that thought alone made him more bitter towards her than Palutena at the moment. "That's a huge waste! An abomination!"

Not arguing took a lot of will power he now discovered by being the center of attention to chatty gods. But when they said things like that, it managed to calm him down a little. He agreed, and added, "Yeah, that's just about the sickest thing I've ever heard. We have to stop him."

"You poor deluded things! You'll _never_ stop me! Not in my realm!" He was paralyzed with fear from Hades' sudden appearance, his sheer size, _in his realm_.

But somehow, he was steered aside and shot forward?

Lost in the darkness, his arms trembled until Palutena's voice soothed through his mind, "Don't let him get under you skin." She steered him a little longer.

"Not a problem." His voice managed to not be hoarse, but his heart felt like it was ready to explode. His sight strained from various intensities such as his emotions and going from light to darkness to light once again. This felt like it's been going on for a ridiculously long time, even if it's only been seven minutes. He almost lost his life, almost experienced failure of the highest caliber. Fear now replaced with anger, he stated, "It's been great touring the cities of souls and all, but _we're here to save Pit_, _right?_"

"No need to cop an attitude, just keep moving forward!"

"What do you _think_ I'm doing, Palutena?"

"Get a room, you love birds~" He shivered with rage at his voice. He could do nothing against Hades and he wanted out. But he couldn't be without Pit in the rewind spring. He felt locked down, obligated, steered, pushed; he felt _responsibility. _His breather roughened, and his eyes felt like they were bulging enough to pop a vessel until he _felt_ the strange torrent in front of him. He paused to take in its appearance. It was like all the little souls he saw and set free turned into a massive glob of fiercely bright energy...

For once to Dark Pit, Palutena informed something _informative. _

"This _was _once the stream of souls. But so many lives have been lost that it became a torrent. All souls need to find their final resting place down here so that life can spring anew. That's part of the natural cycle of life, but Hades keeps playing with souls. He won't let them rest, his bloodlust has thrown everything out of balance..!"

"It's like humans throwing off the balance on earth! It's unforgivable!" His rage had come back after Viridi's statement. Palutena had her flaws, but out of all the gods she was the one who created barely a ripple in this problem. She _tries_ to fix this even if in mildly questionable ways, but Viridi and Hades were an entirely different matter to him. They destroyed and killed the most, they even attracted the devastating Aurum over to this planet, yet, they still blamed the humans, and Palutena ignored Viridi's part in this.

"You've GOT to be joking! All you gods and your stupid wars are the ones throwing _everything_ off balance!" The load rolled off his chest, even the strain in his eyes let up. What air he took into his lung felt much more cleaner after he hollered his feelings—_their_ feelings.

"You little nothing...! How _dare _you-"

"He may have a point," Palutena interrupted. "We have the underworld army hording souls. We have the forces of nature trying to wipe out humanity. We have the humans continuing to exploit nature and each other. And we have _us-_ gods- who drag the entire world into our power struggles." He didn't agree on the bit about humans, but everything else? On cue for him. He entered another zone, and he actually felt oncoming weariness washing over him—something he is unused to feeling. Not even the recovery orbs given to him by Palutena chased this tiring feeling away. "It doesn't matter how this started. Now we know who is profiting from it."

His breath hitched at 'profit'.

"Hades! Left untouched and he threatens us all!" It was like spinning a record backward and creating a deep gash on the layers. What progress they made, at least verbally, had already screwed up. But there was truth to the statement, they were all threatened. Even if they were only taking action through selfish means.

"Our only option is to take him down!"

"But to do that we're going to need Pit's help. Let's get him patched up!" He didn't have the opportunity to say anything to Viridi's 'plan'. The path gotten its tightest, and he collided with a few underworld foes that knocked him into the pipe-like webbing. It wasn't enough to completely stop his flight, and he chose avoidance over full-on confrontation. He was almost there, he could hear it.

Palutena stated, "Up ahead is the rewind spring. I'll bring Pit in right next to you." So much relief at that statement, and growing relief at the spring becoming more than just something in the horizon.

"As the name implies, the Rewind Spring can return things to their original states. But if you soak for too long it'll rewind things too far and...that can get weird." He figured that, it only made sense. Rewind too far and it can only be to where something was no longer was—no existence. Soaking too long wouldn't be a problem, he probably only needed just a dip. Once he finally landed, he stumbled but tried his best to make it look like an action sprint forward. His legs felt noodly, and his lungs went back to feeling shriveled up. He exhaled roughly and inhaled a bit more softly before he leaned forward to the spring. It looked so normal. He barely got a look before a sharp pain shot through out his body.

He was lifted off the ground as he screamed and his body unwilling jerked. Arms swinging and legs shaking. It was much shorter than what it felt like, and it ended when Pandora's energy source ripped out of one of the most sensitive parts of his body. He numbed by that point, but his senses reawakened upon being knocked down onto the floor.

"Well that worked out nicely~" Pandora giggled upon rising out of the spring. He was tired, and anger had become his most prominent emotion. Her laughter-It was actually inspiring. He risen from the ground growling her name. Her color was now _red_ instead of blue or purple, but all of her moves were still the same. In fact, the added heat to the area was _appreciated_. Part of the reason he hated the place was because of the temperature and being so close to Hades. But now he has a warmer arena and a special someone to kill. "You can thank Dark Pit for bringing me to the spring. He was a rebellious _servant_, though it seems he still served my purposes in the end. But that little pest DID steal my powers, and for that, he _must _pay!"

He batted a crystal ball straight into her mouth.

"How's that for payment?" He batted another crystal and fired a shot from his gun along with it. Like before in the eyes of Pit, she warped away and sneered. He braced, clicking the gun trigger over, and over, and over and over, waiting for what _she _wanted to do.

"Little pest... time to exterminate you!" He watched as she leaped back into the springs for several seconds. Out came a beautiful scantily-clad woman with long and luscious blue locks. Even the halo was still there and even more nonsensical than before. It really did throw him off, other goddesses wailing in the background aside. "It's the new and improved me~." He aimed his gun as she foolishly swam around in the air, but he couldn't shoot. The very logical part of his brain wanted to make sense of this, _tried_ to make sense of this. He couldn't turn off those channels of his brain until the amazon withdrew her sword.

He fired his gun and jumped backwards, but soon had to slide himself to the side when the light-symbol flew right back at him. He sucked his teeth and rapidly fired, and successfully snagged her quite a few times. He wasn't sure how useful this was with the way she was flipping around in the air planting obvious treasure boxes all over the field. He kept himself as still as possible to compliment her fluid movement all over the place and to allow the treasure boxes to expire.

"C'mon, Dark Pit! Look alive!" She winked and snapped her fingers, a blue sparkly effect created a blinding heart in his view as a sudden explosion blew him backward. It made him think back to the time he was blown away from the lunarsanctum core, and it did not help that he was paralyzed yet again and on his back. Light shone over him like a stage-light protecting him from more crystal shaped hearts and even healing his paralysis problem. He used this light to spin out the way, circle behind Pandora and swing the at her waist. She blocked, he stepped back then forwards-she parried, and she had far more strength than he expected from her. It was enough to make him stumble backwards. The blade was long enough to try and _stab_ him like a piece of meat on a shis kebab. He allowed himself to hit the floor instead of being gutted and rolled away, shooting more mini bullets-and into her belly button no less.

"You little jerk!"

"You crazed freak!"

"_You're_ the freak, you flopped clone!" A comically large bomb that was familiar was flung at him, and he immediately slapped it back at her to explode upon impact on her. Just like that, _she_ flopped out of the air onto the ground and simply laid there.

"Phew..." He healed himself-

"Just kidding~" Playful Pandora fired hearts all over the place, forcing him to dodge his sore body more than he would like. Right-left-light-reft. He soon ran away while keeping his aching neck turned to keep an eye on her—until she warped. "Oh! Look at you run!" She kicked his face and off he flew and back onto his back. "Such a light-weight! Not attractive of boys, you know."

He rolled to fight the pain off, and clumsily stumbled when he heard, "Hello friends! I've finally found you all! You're a stealthy bunch." _How did Pit deal with this everyday?_

"Well, I used my power of ninjary~" Palutena_ joked_ while he dodged a flame spitting treasure chest and more miniature crystal hearts.

Viridi muttered, "Riiight."

"What? You don't believe me?"

"I think that's something we can all agree on!" Dark Pit growled and slapped another bomb into Pandora. It was his only chance to defeat her at this rate. Hopefully she doesn't wisen up to this with how obsessed with _moving _and flipping she was rather than trying to seriously murder him.

"Tone down the sass, little angel." He batted a bomb much too hard, but activating a super shield rescued him from his own rage. Pandora was now distracted by her conversation with Hades—as insulting as that was, it gave him an advantage. He fired a series of small shots to capture her with a much larger one for once. He kicked the next bomb at her. He was relentless with his attacks to bring her down, even if it felt like he was on the verge of death from his never ending movement. He may have had unlimited flight, but it was still tiring, and this woman had scored a damaging cheap shot by flowing out of his wings in the first place, not to mention his nasty smack into marble-like wires before landing here! "C'mon, Pittoo! Get rid of Pandora for good!"

"Oh, don't you worry!" Spoke too soon, he was hit with a bomb, and he felt like his world had shattered quite literally. He saw red, and upon getting up, that red tint went away with a blue light of Palutena's. Unfortunately, as he turned his head, he was hit by another bomb and violently twirled through the air and landed with a rough thud again. Still, his reflexes did not give up on him. He rolled out the way and he forced himself up, reminding himself he managed through pain like this before when he re-entered the land of consciousness in that cavern awhile back.

"Finally looking alive, honey!" Maybe he was with the way he breathed so hard that he could be seen an heard, how his body quivered no matter how he stood. He tossed a mine and fired his gun immediately after. His wrist trembled violently from the sheer force he had on the trigger to the point he could not let his finger go. Even caught into a well of fire she just _would not die_. He Stumbled backwards but still managed to stay on his feet- "Ow!" The halo was hit from his strayed aim. She was enveloped in a light and...gone.

He fell to his knees.

He really wanted to lay on his side, to stop focusing on his body, to let it just _rest_... but it was bad enough he was on his knees according to his proud nature. He only had a moment to collect his breath before Pit was beamed at the edge of the spring. He swallowed nothing, his mouth was parched, but the action was still there—swallowing air? He couldn't tell, his entire body was a mess, including his brain. He forced himself up to walk to Pit, to finally _help _him—the ironic end of it all. Currently, his body was very worn, very clumsy—stupid, with the way his limbs shook and felt so out of touch. They didn't feel very reliable anymore, and he has never felt this way, not even when he woke up in the cavern. He had a bit of a clench on Pit, to make sure he didn't drop him and put all of his effort to waste. He cradled his head and slowly dip him in then right back out.

He stepped backward and watched his wings glow and take a fuller, healthy form once again. Even with this dizziness, he kept walking backwards, step after step. Seeing Pit flip around tempted him to dip into the spring himself—but _logic_. Logic. He continued to step backwards. He was almost gone...almost out... Almost-

"Pittoo?" Even after he questioned his presence yet again, his twin kept walking backwards until he fell off the ledge. As far as Pit knew Dark Pit could fly by himself. "Lady Palutena! Lady Palutena! I missed you so much, Lady Palutena!"

"Eh...I'll get 'im."

Godly light never felt so good until now.


End file.
